Question
Great article...and I'm doing what it said...spreading the word!
http://www.auctionbusinessreview.com...spensions.html
"eBay Suspensions
By Jim Wells-Miller
Auction Business Review-Journal
eBay Suspensions, No Recourse and No Appeals Process
You rent a storefront in Downtown America, you work hard, you advertise your business, you try to do what is right by your customers, and you are making a modest living. One day you show up to work only to find the doors to your storefront chained and padlocked. Upon closer inspection, you find a note attached to the window. It reads....
"You have violated the terms of your lease and have been locked out of your store. We have removed your entire inventory from the building. We have cancelled your advertisements with the local media, and as an added measure, we have pulled your customer list and informed your customers that they should not do business with you because of possible illegal activity within your business and they could become liable or lose their money if they do business with you. Should you have any questions about this, please contact your landlord."
Possible? In America? Read on...
You're a basket of emotions, all conflicting, while at the same time, you are in shock, You are angry, you are confused, You did nothing wrong. You think that if only you could contact your landlord, you could straighten it all out in a matter of minutes, after all, you did nothing wrong. You jump on the telephone, call your landlord, and get his answering machine. You leave a message. Later that day you leave another. The next morning, after still hearing nothing, you try again. Several days go by, every day you try harder and harder to contact your landlord. You call, you email, you go to his house, and you can't get though to him. Finally, 2 weeks later he finally responds. You ask him what is going on, why did he lock you out of your store, you read him the note that he left on your window....
"You have violated the terms of your lease and have been locked out of your store. We have removed your entire inventory from the building. We have cancelled your advertisements with the local media, and as an added measure, we have pulled your customer list and informed your customers that they should not do business with you because of possible illegal activity within your business and they could become liable or lose their money if they do business with you. Should you have any questions about this, please contact your landlord."
…and you ask him again, what is going on?
His response comes slowly... "I'm not able to discuss this with you because it involves other people, and they have a right to their privacy, I'm sorry.
In disbelief, you push for a better, real answer. You're now 2½ weeks into this ordeal, you have lost all your income for the last two ½ weeks, your 2 employees have been without paychecks, and you are late on your mortgage. Finally, after another 3 days of back and forth communications, your landlord tells you that you broke the terms of the lease by not taking out your trash out to the curb one day, and someone reported you. He tells you he will unchain your store and let you back in as long as you promise to take the trash to the curb every day.
You know this is totally ridiculous and unfair but you have been without a paycheck for weeks, and you are just excited to be back in business, you thank him!
But wait, what about the rest of the stuff? This part - "We have removed your entire inventory from the building. We have cancelled your advertisements with the local media, and as an added measure, we have pulled your customer list and informed your customers that they should not do business with you because of possible illegal activity within your business and they could become liable or lose their money if they do business with you." - You ask him about it, he replies, "I'm sorry, there’s nothing I can do about that, "You shouldn't have violated the terms of your lease."
So again, I will ask you, possible? Yes, and it happens every day, on eBay. With a click of a mouse, your account is suspended without even a hint of recourse or an appeals process.
Here's some recent quotes taken from various places on the internet:
"Go outside and find a nice tree. Then talk to it about appealing your suspension. You'll be more likely to get a response from the tree than you will attempting to contact eBay."
"They did it to me three days before Christmas one year. Cost me like $4,000 in sales. And after about a month, I got my account back."
"Yes, you are guilty until proven innocent where eBay is concerned."
"Close you down and refuse to communicate with you."
"It's been about 10 days since I got suspended and no replies to my emails trying to clear this up."
About 250,000 people earn their primary or secondary income selling on eBay, yet eBay continues to act irresponsibly and communistically toward it's customers. It's only a matter of time before it happens to you, before it affects your business and your livelihood.
eBay needs to have a straight-forward, process driven proceedure for dealing with this and other issues that are industry-wide problems they continue to ignore. They need to do this now, they need to do this before the government steps in with regulatory measures. eBay is too ingrained into our society to not be held accountable for their actions.
Would you tolerate eBay's type of behavior from any other company you do business with? It's time to protect your business, your income, and your family.
It's time to let eBay know that their draconian behavior toward their customers will no longer be tolerated, your silence is a vote for the status quo.
Remain silent no longer, email this article to your friends and business associates, contact eBay, talk about this article on the eBay Discussion Forum of the Online Traders Web Alliance, or email it to online journalists. Be silent no longer, let your voice be heard, do something.
Comments on this article can be emailed to the editor."
Answer
Finally, after another 3 days of back and forth communications, your landlord tells you that you broke the terms of the lease by not taking out your trash out to the curb one day, and someone reported you. He tells you he will unchain your store and let you back in as long as you promise to take the trash to the curb every day.
Change that to:
Finally, after another 3 days of back and forth communications, your landlord tells you that someone reported you for not taking your trash out to the curb one day, even though you have been absolutely perfect and have taken it out every single day. He has absolutely no evidence that you have broken your lease aside from the accusation by the unidentified person who reported you. He tells you he will unchain your store and let you back in as long as you promise to take the trash to the curb every day (even though you are completely innocent, you will now have a 'criminal record').
You don't have to be guilty or proven guilty to be considered and marked as guilty by eBay. No jury, no trial by peers, no possible way to prove your innocence or opportunity to try. You never will be faced by your accusers, or even ever told who they are. Huh, sounds a lot like the Reign of Terror, doesn't it? I guess we should consider ourselves lucky they don't have any guillotines out back, and be grateful they can only kill our businesses.
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Subtle difference but you're right. In many cases there seems to have been nothing. In other cases though something minor that could have been resolved with an email or phone call rather than draconian closing of auctions.
DH still doesn't believe this is going on and I imagine there are many more like him, unfortunately, that don't believe ebay would act like this.
Mayranne
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Congratulations to Jim on the first issue of their new service.
I wrote Bill Cobb about the destruction of eBay Stores by these suspensions and asked that they, at least, maintain the design elements and listings for 30 to 60 days while issues are being resolved. I never received an answer nor saw any acknowledgement that eBay would consider changing their policy.
So many regulations exists and they are so poorly understood by users and staff that a large number of Stores are at risk. This was clearly demonstrated last year when users submitted their Stores to the "Best of eBay Stores" contest and several were picked by eBay staff for inclusion in the contest.
Only after the finalist were announced and questions raised by users was it realized that a number of the finalist had violations of eBay regulations in their Store format or listings.
The Store owners were allowed to correct the problems but these are the same issue that can, under other circumstances, lead to warnings, which is fine, or suspension without warning, which is grossly unfair.
I've taken to describing eBay as 90% great, 8% difficult and 2% unacceptable.
Whatever percentage you might attribute to the great, difficult and unacceptable categories, I think most would agree the present policy of eBay with regards to Store suspensions is unacceptable.
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WTG, Jim! I look forward to future issues!!
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And what was it we learned from fluffy? Once the party has that "criminal record" even if false, the next complaint and NARU causes them to be banned permanently or is it suspended for a long period of time?
Whichever it is, I'd include that. And no hearing of fact from the accused, no dispute process, no arbitration, no court, just gone. Unless of course if the party sues eBay. I seem to recall being told there was an indemnification clause in the agreement? Something about the user getting to pay for eBay's legal fees and expenses in such a dispute?
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but its a company town and in order to do business you must rent from this landlord and hope for the best . there are no other stores availible for you to rent that have anywhere near the sales potenial . you know, you have looked , tried others and continue looking ........maybe some day .
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Increasing frustration among eBay Store owners had led to a renewal of discussions about using other venues and, in particular, other sites that offer Store formats.
One poster started using the term "St. Elsewhere" meaning any site other than eBay and the term has caught on. That has allowed people to say things like "I'm looking to open a St Elsewhere" (or variation like StE, SE etc.) and other to report "My St. E site is doing well" or " I'm just starting a St E."
Now the eBay Store board is filled with comments about St. Elsewhere and even some St. E threads. This is a link to one of the threads.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.js...1363 87003560
I expect eBay will soon end specific threads and delete some comments as the discussions have gone beyond using the general term St. Elsewhere and are naming specific sites and methods of using their services.
There were attempts by sellers to find alternative venues in the past (mostly looking for sites where they could list individual items in auction or fixed price formats) which had little success.
With so many sellers now using eBay Stores and some number of them looking to establish additional sites elsewhere it will be interesting to see what success they achieve and what, if any, impact that has on eBay's attitude.
There is even a site starting www.St-Elsewhere.org
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The other thing is that PayPal will shut you down and out in the same manner, which for some, is the same as being shut down on eBay.
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Do they really email all your bidders as soon as they suspend you? Telling your bidders there's possible illegal activity?
Someone needs to sue eBay, I would think they have no right to tell your customers you're probably a crook unless they have evidence.